Took a much needed post-Halloween breather for a bit to recoup after that outrageous October we plowed through. But the party never ends here at THOIA, as we return with a supernatural soiree into the weird underworld of vicious Victorian era violence and witchcraft, --from the January 1953 issue of The Thing #6.
5 comments:
This one is actually one of my favorites. It's just so over the top fun with this evil warlock who keeps ghouls downstairs in his basement and continuously masquerades between being a beggar and a dashing nobleman. Love the little details of the unseen narrator's eyes appearing throughout the story, such as on the flame of a candle,a cloud of smoke, a flagon that the warlock drinks out of
and out of a cauldron. I kind of love how the protagonist of our story actually gets a silver sword made by a blacksmith so that he can take it to the warlock's party to put an end to him. Now that's commitment! Got to love that second panel of page 5 of Ursula fancying herself a glamour ghoul with those pearls though! Also love how the ghouls decide to join the party in human form wearing costumes as well.
Also, there is something hilarious about the protagonist stabbing a ghoul in human form wearing a clown costume.
Also stabbing one with a hot femme fatale look. That makes it feel a little brutal.
Ha ha, yeah, they certainly did manage to pack an awful lot of violence into six panels there at the end. I kind of love it, actually--"Then the hero stabs almost everybody. The end." No question mark this time.
But my favorite page is three. I love the last two-thirds. The cyan shift is groovy plus, and makes all that stuff look a little bit anaglyphic. But those concentric explosions of smokey candlelight in the middle are doomy and awesome, as are the creepy and gaping faces of the ghouls there at the bottom. What a page!
Like the story before this, I love how a normal guy (in this case a legal consultant!!!) just becomes action hero Mr. Stab You In The Face. There's no "I'm going into the den of monsters" it's just "make me a sword, I have a suspicion there's a dungeon in the alley!"
I love how fast the end comes. They spend pages setting everything up and then it's stab spree! They offer no resistance, he just outright slaughters them without a thought.
These are the kinds of comics that really fired up a kids imagination. That, out of nowhere, a situation could suddenly arise and you are just tearing through the bad guys and get the hot lady in the end. I love the little puffs of smoke as the house falls in!
Like Glowworm, I like the narrating eyes (though the printing hid a couple from me) but the over-use of "thing", especially with the stylized text, is a bit much, but that's a nitpick.
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